Russian arrested in Berlin over ‘planned bomb attack’

From the BBC, Reuters and the German edition of The Local

A 31-year-old Chechen man who is alleged to have stored large quantities of explosives in his Berlin apartment has been arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack. The state prosecutor’s office confirmed the arrest on Wednesday of 31-year-old Islamist Magomed-Ali C. and a search of his apartment.

The arrest took place as part of a joint operation between Berlin criminal police, federal police and anti-terror special force GSG 9.

It is part of a wider investigation by French authorities into Clément B., who was arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack in France in April 2017. C. is alleged to have stored significant quantities of the explosive TATP in his Berlin apartment back in 2016, and to have plotted a terror attack on German soil with his accomplice.

Magomed-Ali C. will appear before a judge on Thursday when prosecutors said they will request he be kept in custody.

Frauke Koehler, senior public prosecutor and spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors office, told reporters Magomed-Ali C. had visited a mosque in Berlin that was also attended by Anis Amri, a Tunisian with Islamist militant ties who killed 12 people in the attack in Berlin in 2016, when he hijacked a truck and drove it into a crowded marketplace.

“So it’s obviously possible that the paths of Magomed-Ali C. and Anis Amri crossed there,” Koehler said, adding that Amri had been in contact with Clement B., who she said was also said to have visited the mosque. “We have no indications that Magomed-Ali C. or Clement B. were involved in the Berlin Christmas market attack,” she added.

The now closed mosque in Moabit was a hub for Chechen extremists, a number of whom went to fight with jihadists in Syria and Iraq, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper reported.